Journals Production Manager

Location: Remote, UK Or Remote, India

About the role:

• Manage a programme of journal titles, helping build and own the associated relationships with all stakeholders (internal/external) and act as the Wiley contact point providing a seamless strategic partnership to our clients.
• Ensure that all journals are delivered to an agreed standard of quality and schedule by managing a team of outsourced Vendor Production Editors.
• Ensure that journals adhere to best practices for efficiency and/or cost-savings. Work with Technical Operations & Process (TOPS) team to address any vendor quality or process lapses.
• Undertake proactive planning and forecasting to mitigate and pre-empt any problems across the portfolio associated with the production process (quality, schedule, etc) to help Production Editors prioritise workloads and ensure that all Stakeholders are aware of any changes.
• Drive faster adoption of workflow initiatives aligned to Content Operations strategic objectives by influencing and negotiating with stakeholders.
• Create a partnership with all Editorial colleagues to ensure cross Wiley collaboration on all strategic goals.
• Responsibilities and areas of specialisation may differ dependent on assigned portfolios and projects.
  
  

How will you make an impact:

Capacity & Production Planning

• Proactively monitor and manage the adherence to agreed timeframes for tasks carried out by team members through utilising data interpretation and analytics.
• Proactively escalate and manage the quality of the work carried out by suppliers to vendor managers and TOPS.
• Ensure portfolio capacity and project contribution is at an optimum level via discussions with the Senior Production Manager.
• Conduct regular health checks on an agreed basis to by proactively highlighting problems, making implementation recommendations to editors, and involving internal editorial colleagues as needed for cross functional collaboration.
  
  

Vendor PE Management

• Oversee production processes and continuous improvement for an agreed journal workload package by managing Vendor PEs: from receipt of materials through publication online and in print to agreed standards, KPIs, targets, initiatives, lead times, publication schedules, etc.
• Act as an escalation point, providing support and advice to enable vendor PEs to resolve problems in a timely manner and deliver quality services. Oversee suppliers effectiveness throughout the production process and anticipate, report on, and resolve actual and potential problems with the help of TOPS.
• Be aware of root cause analysis for problem resolution and to take note of any recurrence.
• Monitor the adherence to agreed timeframes and quality for tasks carried out by vendor PEs.
• Provide constructive feedback to clients, suppliers through established mechanisms via TOPS.
• Ensure vendor PEs enter accurate, current, and complete information into all Wiley systems to meet workflow management criteria, and oversee PEs’ journal-specific documentation updates, with the assistance of Team Leaders.
• Use available reports and analytics to support and drive results and associated performance. This includes accurate reporting of key milestones in the production process and providing any requested reports to external clients and internal colleagues in the correct format and required timeframe.
• Assist in supporting vendor PE to adhere to Wiley workflows and associated changes. Publication of current, high quality publications that meet scheduled current KPIs to generate revenues, enhancing Wileys reputation as a pre-eminent journal publisher among authors and clients.
• Vendor PEs are supported to control costs by keeping amount of information published within budget, ensuring corrections are kept to a minimum, and utilizing suppliers time and resources effectively.
• Vendor performance is audited against specific performance measures (e.g., slippage/grippage, JPCMS maintenance including schedule creation, getting things right first time, TAT adherence).
• Accurate and complete information is available to all who need it, ensuring actual and potential problems to be identified in a timely manner.
• Adherence to the companys legal obligations.
  
  

Project & Change Management

• Drive faster adoption of change and improvement projects by supporting and influencing teams to adopt new ways of working to support Content Operations and Wiley strategic initiatives
• Demonstrate commercial understanding by keeping up to date with the latest Wiley, Content Operations and Industry initiatives to enable cascade to teams and partners.
• Contribute to business improvement projects, rollout of new processes and workflow harmonization initiatives, as required.
  
  

Influencing & Relationships

• Act as primary point of contact for Wiley production to keep all external clients informed of production progress and their role in the process.
• Liaise with external suppliers to ensure all understand their role in the production process and comply with agreed standards and lead-times.
• Understand and give clarity to the rationale for change by forming partnerships with editors to influence and drive adoption of new ways of working, processes and technology changes to meet Content Operations and Wiley strategic initiatives.
• Promote team success by providing cover for fellow Production Managers.
  
  

Technical Knowledge

• Understand the production systems and platforms end to end, particularly in light of new E2E initiatives. Understand our production methodology and how initiatives like Continuous Publication, a standard layout and design and automation of production processes like CE, Pagination, would lead to a more streamlined process.
  
  

What we look for:

• 3-5 years of journal/book publishing experience
• Experience as a Production Editor, Senior Production Editor, Production Manager, or similar; experience of working with offshore Production Editors/vendors; experience of managing a portfolio of journals preferred
• Strong organizational and time management skills; Good relationship management skills (contact with internal and external stakeholders); Problem solving skills; Good communication skills; Influencing/negotiating skills
• Knowledge of publishing processes (including online and print); Microsoft Office familiarity (Word, Excel, Teams, Outlook)
• High level of independent working, using own initiative and making decisions effectively within parameters; Strong ability to create and work in a collaborative environment
  
  

About Wiley

Wiley is a trusted leader in research and learning, our pioneering solutions and services are paving the way for knowledge seekers as they work to solve the world’s most important challenges. We are advocates of advancement, empowering knowledge-seekers to transform today’s biggest obstacles into tomorrow’s brightest opportunities.

With over 200 years of experience in publishing, we continue to evolve knowledge seekers’ steps into strides, illuminating their path forward to personal, educational, and professional success at every stage. Around the globe, we break down barriers for innovators, empowering them to advance discoveries in their fields, adapt their workforces, and shape minds.

We are proud that our workplace promotes continual learning and internal mobility. Our values support courageous teammates, needle movers and learning champions all while striving to support the health and well-being of all employees, for example we offer meeting-free Friday afternoons allowing more time for heads down work and professional development.

We are committed to fair, transparent pay, and we strive to provide competitive compensation in addition to a comprehensive benefits package. The range below represents Wiley’s good faith and reasonable estimate of the base pay for this role at the time of posting roles either in the UK, Canada or USA. It is anticipated that most qualified candidates will fall within the range, however the ultimate salary offered for this role may be higher or lower and will be set based on a variety of non-discriminatory factors, including but not limited to, geographic location, skills, and competencies. Wiley proactively displays target base pay range for UK, Canada and USA based roles.